Digging into new digital domain

Donald Schmitt, a principal of Diamond and Schmitt
Architects Inc.; Stephen Director, the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of
Engineering; Kevin O’Connor, an alumnus and chairman of DoubleClick
Inc.; Jerry Levin, an alumnus and chairman and CEO of American
Household Inc.; Mary Sue Coleman, U-M president; and John Laird,
associate chair of the Computer Science and Engineering Division
and professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science, turn shovels Nov. 21 at the North Campus site where construction
is set to begin on a 104,000-gross-square-foot, four-story Computer
Science and Engineering (CSE) Building. The instructional and academic
facility to support computer science, information technology and
related activities also will include a number of student learning
spaces, and will house the college computer science and engineering
faculty. The phased construction schedule calls for completion
in winter 2006. The $40 million facility, which will be built into
the hillside west of the Dow Building, will be funded from College
of Engineering reserves and gifts.